Monitoring intercooler fluit temps
10-22-2018, 08:09 AM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Monitoring intercooler fluit temps
Glad I finally found this part of the forum. I've hung around over in the lowered truck section for a while but never really hung around here where folks like to turn the wick up on the performance aspect of their trucks. I'll probably have a few questions....I used to ask my questions over at s197forum.com but I don't hang around over there any more.
Okay so here's a few questions
How many of you guys monitor your coolant temps in your heat exchanger/intercooler loops?
What have you found regarding ait2f's and intercooler loop temps? For example, how much reduction in ait2f's do you see in relation to intercooler fluid temps? Or what is the difference between fluid temps and ait2f's?
How do your intercooler loop temps compare to ambient...in other words how much is your loop actually cooling the fluid in the loop compared to ambient temps?
I found a device, the trail tech tto, which I plumbed into my intercooler loop to see what the coolant temps are real time. Using this device I've found that once the vehicle is pretty much heat soaked, my coolant temps average around 7 degrees above ambient. I don't know what an efficient loop should cool the fluid to however, so there's another question for you guys.
I've asked around and I've never been able to really determine what the high end heat exchangers and fans set ups should cool fluid temps to compared to ambient temps. Perhaps someone can give some insight in that regard.
I'm running the original lower heat exchanger that came with the roush stage II blower, the upper add on unit from roush, and then I also added another generic ebay heat exchanger in front of that. Also I have three fans. Two 5 inch spahl fans on the lower heat exchanger and a 14 inch fan behind the upper heat exchangers. I also am currently running a Rhodes race car 5 gallon resevoir in the back of the truck with a pierburg cwa50 pump (late model gt500) in the front and another rule 1100 liters per minute pump in the tank. For fluid I'm running straight soft water from my home.
Surprisingly, adding the resevoir in the back made absolutely no difference in coolant temps compared to when I had the small roush resevoir only under the hood. the rest of the heat exchanger loop is the same. The new resevoir is also insulated with foamular board and heat reflective outer shield.
My experience here has taught me that the larger resevoir is a waste of time for street use. It has helped zero in reducing coolant or ait2f temps. It is a benefit for track use however as I'm easily able to add ice to the tank and this does bring ait2f's way down.
Any and all comments and/or ideas are welcome
In my other thread this is the roush stage II supercharged '13 swbrc truck that I ran a 12.60 with at 109mph.
Okay so here's a few questions
How many of you guys monitor your coolant temps in your heat exchanger/intercooler loops?
What have you found regarding ait2f's and intercooler loop temps? For example, how much reduction in ait2f's do you see in relation to intercooler fluid temps? Or what is the difference between fluid temps and ait2f's?
How do your intercooler loop temps compare to ambient...in other words how much is your loop actually cooling the fluid in the loop compared to ambient temps?
I found a device, the trail tech tto, which I plumbed into my intercooler loop to see what the coolant temps are real time. Using this device I've found that once the vehicle is pretty much heat soaked, my coolant temps average around 7 degrees above ambient. I don't know what an efficient loop should cool the fluid to however, so there's another question for you guys.
I've asked around and I've never been able to really determine what the high end heat exchangers and fans set ups should cool fluid temps to compared to ambient temps. Perhaps someone can give some insight in that regard.
I'm running the original lower heat exchanger that came with the roush stage II blower, the upper add on unit from roush, and then I also added another generic ebay heat exchanger in front of that. Also I have three fans. Two 5 inch spahl fans on the lower heat exchanger and a 14 inch fan behind the upper heat exchangers. I also am currently running a Rhodes race car 5 gallon resevoir in the back of the truck with a pierburg cwa50 pump (late model gt500) in the front and another rule 1100 liters per minute pump in the tank. For fluid I'm running straight soft water from my home.
Surprisingly, adding the resevoir in the back made absolutely no difference in coolant temps compared to when I had the small roush resevoir only under the hood. the rest of the heat exchanger loop is the same. The new resevoir is also insulated with foamular board and heat reflective outer shield.
My experience here has taught me that the larger resevoir is a waste of time for street use. It has helped zero in reducing coolant or ait2f temps. It is a benefit for track use however as I'm easily able to add ice to the tank and this does bring ait2f's way down.
Any and all comments and/or ideas are welcome
In my other thread this is the roush stage II supercharged '13 swbrc truck that I ran a 12.60 with at 109mph.
10-22-2018, 07:11 PM
#2
Do you know what your actual IAT2 temperatures are? I log my IAT2 temperatures (air temps), but not the temperature of the actual coolant in the system. For a positive displacement blower setup, IAT2 temperatures (under load) of 30 degrees over ambient are good, and will keep most setups very happy. The worst case scenario for my system was on the dyno with minimal air, and we had a 29 degree delta t under load during the pull. I can't really complain about that and have no issues with heatsoak in any situation. I'm running a shrouded and fan cooled (10" Spal) Roush heat exchanger with a secondary 34x7 heat exchanger in the grille area. I'm using the stock GT500 Bosch pump, though I have been thinking about converting to the late model GT500 pump and will probably do so when my current pump dies.
There is certainly a point of diminishing returns with positive displacement blowers, because no matter what we do part of the actual heat exchange is always going to occur in the lower intake manifold where its bathed in heat from the engine. Without active cooling from something like an ice tank or a killer chiller, there will come a point where the temperatures will stabilize regardless of how many radiators you have. There are thermal limits from how much heat you can remove in a certain amount of time from a chunk of aluminum nestled deep in the V of another chunk of aluminum being rapidly heated by explosions.
As for large reservoirs, they won't have any impact on overall cooling as the increased water volume will eventually equalize to whatever it would have been in a smaller reservoir, it would just take longer to get there. They are nice for adding ice however...
There is certainly a point of diminishing returns with positive displacement blowers, because no matter what we do part of the actual heat exchange is always going to occur in the lower intake manifold where its bathed in heat from the engine. Without active cooling from something like an ice tank or a killer chiller, there will come a point where the temperatures will stabilize regardless of how many radiators you have. There are thermal limits from how much heat you can remove in a certain amount of time from a chunk of aluminum nestled deep in the V of another chunk of aluminum being rapidly heated by explosions.
As for large reservoirs, they won't have any impact on overall cooling as the increased water volume will eventually equalize to whatever it would have been in a smaller reservoir, it would just take longer to get there. They are nice for adding ice however...
10-22-2018, 08:45 PM
#3
Senior Member
Thread Starter
yes I do monitor ait2's. The monitoring of the fluid temps is probably a misnomer to some extent, as the device isn't actually mounted in the cab of the truck. I normally look at it as soon as I park and turn the motor off and then pop the hood and look at it. I understand all you are saying and in fact agree, however I've been unable to determine at what point a heat exchanger/intercooler loop is functioning in an efficient manner. It would seem that comparing fluid temps to ambient would be an easy way to do that, but, as of yet, I haven't been able to find anyone that can tell me how close to ambient temps I should expect from an "efficient" coolant loop.
Thanks for taking the time to read a long first post. I'm not always that patient if they're too long.
Thanks for taking the time to read a long first post. I'm not always that patient if they're too long.
10-23-2018, 12:17 AM
#4
An efficient intercooling loop for a positive displacement supercharger setup is IAT2's anywhere around 30 degrees over ambient under load. You can certainly do better than that, but from all my personal experience and all my reading, if you are around 30 degrees over ambient your system is doing a good job. Its very possible to do better than that, especially on a race vehicle with an ice tank or a killer chiller, but for a street car 30 degrees over ambient is excellent.
For the purposes of tuning, you want IAT2 temperatures under 150 degrees, as over 150 degrees you are gonna need to ease up on timing. Obviously the cooler then better, and ideally you'd want to be well under 150 degrees, but that's the line in the sand where you start loosing power. That's with custom tuning, OEM's start pulling timing much earlier than that..
From everything you've described, your intake air cooling setup on your truck is as good as its going to get. For a street car the extra heat exchangers you've added are plenty adequate and the upgraded 2013-14 GT500 pump you are using is about the best you can get. For the track you have a large reservoir you use as an ice tank, which again is about as good as you can get and could potentially get you IAT2's near ambient, which would be amazing.
Last edited by BadCon; 10-23-2018 at 05:59 AM.
